Brave
by WritelkeUmeanit
Summary: When Emma sees how badly Cora's death is affecting Mary Margaret, she opens up. She tells her mother about what happened to her when she was thirteen, in hopes Mary Margaret won't do the same. (S2. Charming feels!)


**A/N: This one's kinda heavy guys. It's a topic that I am all too familiar with. A couple of years ago, I wouldn't have liked to write about something like this. But now that I can relate, the feelings are easier to convey.**

**Don't forget to review before you go! **

**P.S- Working on some Emma/David fluff so keep a look out! **

**Brave**

Everything happened so fast. It was like someone pushed a domino that set off a big chain reaction of crazy chaos.

Emma was still trying to get over the shock of finding out that Neal is Gold's son. Then they come back to Storybrooke to face Regina and Cora. Her mother kills Cora. Regina was filled with anger when she left the scene. Mary Margaret didn't say a word. The day was nearly over. Neal went to Granny's. Emma took Henry and went home. David asked Mary Margaret if she wanted to do the same, but she said she needed a walk. David nodded in understanding, though he wished she had asked him to come along.

XOX

It was late when Mary Margaret walked through the apartment. She'd been gone for hours, walking through town, replaying the scene over and over again her head. She couldn't' escape the 'what ifs'.

When Mary Margaret finally came home, it was after eleven. She saw Henry passed out on the couch, the muted tv on, a movie playing. A small smile took her face as she pulled the blanket that had gotten tangled up in his legs. She straightened it out, covering his body, then put a kiss to his forehead.

Mary Margaret looked to her bedroom. She didn't want to go to sleep. She couldn't rest her mind enough to think about doing so.

Her eyes wandered to the loft. She climbed the stairs and peaked through the cracked door to find Emma awake in bed. Her eyes were on the tv as she flipped from one channel to another. Mary Margaret knocked softly on the door. Emma looked to the noise, telling her mother to come in.

"Hi."

"Hey," Emma said softly while moving to sit up. "You were gone a while."

Mary Margaret nodded. "I don't mean to bother you. I just came up to make sure you're okay."

"You're worried about _me_?" Emma asked in surprise.

"You've been through a lot… and now with Neal, finding out who he really is."

"Yeah, shocker. But it is what it is," Emma brushed off. "I'm fine. But you're not."

"I, um… I don't know."

With a frown, Emma said, "do you want to talk?"

"I want to forget," Mary Margaret said honestly.

Emma nodded. "Wait here," she said while getting out of bed. She then hurried downstairs, grabbing a bottle of wine and two glasses. When she reached her room, Mary Margaret was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"You can't forget," Emma started while putting the glasses down on her nightstand, pouring a nice amount for each of them. "but you can numb the pain a little."

Mary Margaret frowned at the glass that Emma handed her. "I shouldn't be drinking in front of you."

"Why not?"

"Things are different… you're my daughter."

Emma rolled her eyes. "And well past the legal drinking age," she said before taking a generous sip. "Your turn."

Mary Margaret hesitated for a moment before doing the same. Then she looked to Emma and said, "I don't know what to do… how do I…. where do I go from here?"

Emma put her glass down and sat next to her mother. "You stopped an evil bitch who collects human hearts for fun… you didn't have a choice, Mary Margaret. You killed her so she couldn't hurt anyone else… what if she got to Henry? He can't defend himself against her... We don't have to worry about her anymore. I know that all you see right now is that you killed someone. But there's a lot more to it than that… she deserved to die."

"Maybe," Mary Margaret murmured in doubt. "But… I took the easy way out… all I could see was her hurting my family… Emma, I don't want to lose you again."

"You're not gonna lose me."

"You're just like your father. You jump into anything, no matter the danger... What if you didn't have magic inside of you? What if your heart wasn't protected? She would have ripped it from your chest. She would have been able to control you. One hard squeeze and she could have ended your life."

"Well, we don't have to worry about that. She couldn't take my heart. And now she won't be able to try again."

"It was incredibly foolish of you to push me out of the way. Do you have an idea what it would have done to me if she had killed you? To say goodbye to you, all over again… that would have been it, Emma."

Emma's eyes widened in surprise. "You would end your-"

"Yes."

Emma took a quiet breath as she absorbed the information. "I don't want you to die for me."

"Well, tough."

Emma frowned.

"You still don't understand. You're my daughter… I know not much time has passed since the curse was broken, but… well, Emma, you know I loved you before, right? We were family, long before we ever found out we truly were… but now… I just… I did a horrible thing."

"You did what you had to do to protect us."

"No. There were other ways. Harder ways. But I listened to Gold when I shouldn't have. I made a mistake that I can't take back… I feel… I don't know…"

"Angry? Sad? Scared? But somehow numb at the same time?"

Mary Margaret nodded. "I can't come back from this. I can't undo it. I can't make things right."

"I get it," Emma said. "I know what it feels like to hit rock bottom. You think you won't bounce back., that things won't ever okay. Part of you wants to screw it, be done; it's all gets to be too much so you shut down and find a way to…. Never mind. "

Mary Margaret's forehead wrinkled in thought as she watched Emma struggle for words. "Emma?" she asked carefully.

"Sorry… bad memory."

"What is it? What happened?"

Emma shook her head.

Mary Margaret watched as her daughter closed her eyes and took a quiet breath.

"Emma, are you saying that… that you wanted to… oh, Emma, honey, no."

"It was a long time ago. But this isn't about me… I'm all trying to say is I know what can happen when those bad feelings take over. You have to just… try to harden yourself. You have to find a way to beat it before it can bring you down… I don't want you to end up in the position I was in. You're not a bad person. You're not a killer. Easy way or not, Cora had it coming. You stopped a bad person from doing bad things."

Emma took her daughter's hand and gave a gentle squeeze.

"I know you feel awful. You feel guilty because you think you did something wrong. But at the end of the day, you saved us.

"And _you _saved _me."_

Emma gave a small smile.

They sat in silence, Mary Margaret holding Emma's hand tight as she tried to find the confidence to say what she wanted to say. To ask the question that would haunt her if she left the words unsaid.

"I know you don't like talking about your past," Mary Margaret started, her words quiet, "but… Emma, when did you feel that way?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does to me."

Emma got to her feet, her face and stance showing how uncomfortable she was with the topic. "I was… you know, I was an unhappy kid. Bounced around a lot. Wound up in another crappy place. One of the kids there was older than me. He was sixteen. I was thirteen. He, um… it's over. It's okay. I'm fine."

Mary Margaret's brows furrowed in thought as she stood up. "He what, Emma?" she asked carefully.

Emma looked away, trying to avoid her mother's stare. She tried to fight the memory from flooding back. "He was just a jerk. Plenty of those in the world, right?"

"Emma," Mary Margaret said, her tone firm.

"It's not a big deal, I just… lost my virginity sooner than I thought I would."

Mary Margaret's eyes widened in fear. "He made you have sex with him?"

Emma nodded, just barely.

Mary Margaret didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to believe that something so terrible could happen to her daughter.

"Didn't want to be labeled the school slut but guess he thought it would be fun to spread around school. Kids aren't very forgiving."

Mary Margaret felt the tears taking her vision as she stepped forward and pulled her daughter in for a hug. She held tight, letting the tears flow freely.

"It's okay," Emma said. "I'm not a kid anymore. I'm over it."

Mary Margaret couldn't find the words.

"Please don't cry," Emma begged. "He's gone. I left that house and never saw him again."

"He hurt you… you were only thirteen," Mary Margaret argued. "It's bad enough that he made you… you were so young."

Emma tried to pull away, but Mary Margaret held tighter. Emma gave in. She tried to relax. She closed her eyes and put her chin to her mother's shoulder.

"I can't even begin to… Oh, Emma, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"You wanted to die," Mary Margaret cried.

"Yes," Emma agreed, the word just above a murmur. "But that's in the past. I'm worried about you. What happened to me is over and done with."

"Don't be."

"I know how it starts… you can't shut us out. You can't let it consume you."

"I won't. It won't."

"You won't do what I did?"

Her forehead wrinkled in confusion, Mary Margaret pulled back enough to find Emma's eyes.

Realizing she opened another can of worms, Emma sighed. "I downed a bottle of pills."

That send Mary Margaret over the edge. She fell back to the bed, her eyes on the floor, her mind lost.

"I was a stupid kid," Emma said, trying to jar her mother from her thoughts.

"You went through something no child should ever have to go through."

"I didn't mean to… It's just, I can see how much it's eating away at you, and I know what can happen… Yes. Okay. Yes, I had every intention of dying that day. I didn't see the point anymore. But I didn't take enough pills. I got lucky. Not everyone does… you were gone for a while. Part of me started to think you…" Emma took a breath, trying to gather herself. "I won't let it happen to you too."

Mary Margaret held her frown.

"You think you'll never do something so insane until you do. Until you find yourself lying in a hospital bed, feeling sicker than you've ever felt, lying to a shrink, trying to tell her that you're not crazy, that it was all just a stupid dare and you're fine… you're the strongest person I know, Mary Margaret. I don't want you to lose yourself."

"Oh, Emma, I won't. But you have to promise me something."

Emma looked at her in question.

"You have to promise me that you will never do something like that again."

Emma was taken back by the strict tone of her voice. "I won't."

Mary Margaret nodded.

"Do you, uh, wanna crash up here tonight?"

With a small smile, Mary Margaret said yes.

"I'll get another blanket."

Emma turned to go, but Mary Margaret pulled on her hand. She found her daughter's eyes and said, "You may think I'm strong, but you're brave, Emma. Growing up the way you did… you're so brave, and that's counts for a lot."

Emma smiled.

"I love you."

"Love you too."

_The End_

**Thoughts before you go? Please and thank you! **


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